I've been meaning to get back on post my current outdoor enclosure, life just keeps getting in the way. Of course, now we are about to move out of this house (owner wants to move in... annoying...), so this HAS to be the perfect time to post about an enclosure I'm about to pull down!!! Hahaha
First of all, I want to show you what we started with at the previous house. We bought a rather large, 1800mm x 3600mm x 1800mm (~ 6' x 12' x 6') "cat" enclosure that has super strong mesh. We lined the bottom with a marine-style carpet and filled it up with STUFF. As we didn't really trust the mesh in the long run, this was a supervised only outdoor enclosure. The girls got to play in it for a couple of hours each day while my wife or I did something outside (which sucks in winter!!!). It wasn't ideal, but it meant they got outdoor time without us having to follow them around on the harness and leads they hated at the time.
Here is what it looked like:
We thought about using it where we are now and adding some kind of acrylic sheet around the sides, but the expense and hassle just didn't seem worth it. It is now repurposed for the cat to use at this house, though he doesn't like being out there own his own... big sook!
Besides, I had a much better plan for this house. There is a veranda running the entire front of the house. So, why not enclose half of it for Cindy and Sally to play, unsupervised, each and every day?!?!
That in the end is what I did. I made up panels of marine ply framed by structural pine. They were then fixed together with screws in the corners. As we are in a rental property, we couldn't permanently fix the structure to the veranda, the solution was to sandwich the two outer panels to one of the uprights with some bolts and rubber to protect it. Then running around the houses outer wall is some more structural pine to keep it all square and prevent the girls from just shoving the panels aside. Lastly, we covered the entire floor with vinyl\lino, which is stapled liberally to the pine supports the entire way around.
Here is how it looked just after I finished initially:
I used piano hinges for the "gate" at the top. We have a couple of AU$5 steps from K-Mart to climb in and out. I didn't like the idea of a vertically hinged door on an outdoor enclosure. I didn't want them bolting past us when we wanted to go in. Plus, this is a whole lot simpler in the end. It is held "closed" with a sliding bolt on each side at the top.
The girls seem to really love it. They spend a decent amount of time running at full tilt and then pouncing on each other. The window you can see is out lounge room, we spend more time than we should sitting and watching them getting their crazy on! Also, as it is right next to the front door, we have had a number of neighbours, couriers, etc. spooked when the look in and one of the girls comes barreling up and does a flying leap at them!!
The enclosure measures around 5250mm x 1800mm (17'3" x 6') with a wall height of approximately 1250mm (4'). With the "gate" folded down I (5'11") can just step over without assistance if I need to, though there are usually ferrets underfoot, so it is just easier to use the little steps.
You may notice that some panels aren't painted. This was purely down to time. I ran out of it! Even though it is marine ply, it will break down in time no matter what anyone wants to tell you. The remaining panels will hopefully get cleaned up and painted when we move in a few weeks.
Including the cost of paint, which was HALF the cost of the entire build, this cost ~AU$300 to build. Exterior paint is SOOOOO d*mn expensive!!! I still have a huge amount of vinyl left, so I should be able to use most of this and my leftovers to build the enclosure at the new house. The dimensions of the veranda there are a little different, but a little lateral thinking and we'll get there.
Cindy and Sally exploring their new enclosure:
Hot days are hard work:
So we get a pool to play in:
Also, to combat the hot summers (which we have just finished) we have installed a misting system above the enclosure that drops the temperature considerably. We can have days on end of 38 deg C or higher (100 deg F) during summer, so this really helped. We have the misting system on a timer and it comes on for about 5 minutes each hour, depending on how hot it is. That and some wet blankets, the pool, etc. and the girls had a good summer. They never seemed to be stressed, were never dehydrated and never felt warmer than they should be. It took a bit of effort from my wife and I, but an outdoor enclosure during summer in the Australian heat is most certainly manageable. Once the night cooled down a little, the girls would get extremely hyper-active after a day of doing very little other than lounging in their pool and blankets.
Hope you all like this and I will put up a post of the new enclosure when I have built it in a few weeks.
Thanks,
Chris